Romanian media and public opinion. The next official match, against France, was considered decisive for Romania's qualification chances. Despite managing only a 2–2 tie, the team's performance was generally deemed satisfactory, and Pițurcă was offered one last chance to remain coach of the national team: to win both of the next two games in the qualifying group, against Serbia and Austria, within a four-day timespan. Romania eventually lost both matches (3–2 on 28 March 2009 against Serbia at home, 2–1 on 1 April against Austria away). Considering Romania's extremely poor performances in 2008 and 2009, the Romanian Football Federation released Victor Pițurcă from his job from the Romania national team on 9 April 2009. A few weeks later, Răzvan Lucescu was appointed as his successor. In 2010, he had two short spells as manager at FCSB and Universitatea Craiova. On 14 June 2011, he returned for a third spell in charge of the Romania national team. On 16 October 2014, he left the Romania national team to sign a two-year deal with Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia. In January 2015, he was heavily criticized for excluding Al-Ittihad's top stars Mohammed Noor and Hamad Al-Montashari due to disobeying training procedure. As of today, Noor has missed over 10 league matches, which was considered by Saudi journalists "way too far" for a punishment considering he is Al-Ittihad's longest tenured and most accomplished player. On 4 April 2015 before the decisive match between Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr, Pițurcă was seen shaking hands with Noor. On 10 May 2015, after four months, Noor and Al-Montashari returned. Finally at the end of the season, Piturca's contract with Al-Ittihad was dismissed after a disappointing season, as he couldn't succeed to keep the team on the top three teams of the Saudi Premier league table. In addition, he failed to pass the semi-final round in the Saudi King's Cup. On 22 August 2019, he signed a contract with his youth club Universitatea Craiova for 3 years. He resigned in January 2020. Personal life At Steaua București and FC U Craiova he coached his son, Alexandru who was a striker. He is the cousin of Eugen Neagoe. He was nicknamed Satana ("Satan") by the press, something he called "remarkable". Honours Player Steaua București Divizia A (5): 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89 Cupa României: 1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89 European Cup: 1985–86; Runner-up: 1988–89 European Supercup: 1986 Individual Divizia A top scorer: